The name Polycoccum opulentum proves to have been wrongly applied to a lichenicolous fungus belonging to the genus Lichenothelia, and which differs from the type material of P. opulentum in having non-ostiolate broadly stipitate ascomata and narrow ascospores with a conspicuous gelatinous sheath. The Lichenothelia represents an hitherto undescribed species, named here as L. renobalesiana, sp. nov. which is associated with verrucarialean lichens on hard limestones in temperate regions. The true P. opulentum is known only from the original collection on Polyblastia hyperborea from Sweden.

Caloplaca concreticola is described here as new. It is a morphologically well-characterized, sorediate species of the subgenus Pyrenodesmia, that comprises a part of the ‘‘black-fruited’’ taxa with an absence of anthraquinones in their apothecia. Currently it is known only from concrete and always occurs close to water (mainly on the walls of water channels). Analysis of nuclear ribosomal ITS sequence data of the new species, together with most European species of the subgenus, supports the recognition of the new species as a monophyletic taxon within the Pyrenodesmia clade.

The coelomycete Acaroconium punctiforme gen. sp. nov. is described from four members of the lichen-forming family Acarosporaceae, three species of Acarospora and Sarcogyne regularis. The new fungus is characterized by pycnidial conidiomata with a distinct ostiolar collar, enteroblastic conidiogenesis, and the production of simple brown conidia. The separation of the fungus from other somewhat similar pycnidial fungi growing on lichens and plant material is discussed.

The new species Lecanora lasalliae Pérez-Ortega & Etayo is described from Spain. It is included provisionally in Lecanora s. lat as characters such as Lecanora-type ascus, exciple composed of thick radiating hyphae and the usual presence of algal cells in the excipulum or its lichenicolous habitus on Lasallia pustulata, do not fit well within any known genus of lichenicolous or lichenized fungi. Its taxonomic affinities with several taxa are discussed, including the parasitic Lecanora gyrophorina.

A new Scoliciosporum is described from rainforest in Madagascar. It superficially resembles S. pruinosum, but has an arachnoid hypothallus and prothallus and an olivaceous hypothecium and excipulum.

A new species of the Leptogium trichophorum group is described from Mt. Albert Edward in Papua New Guinea. A key to the related species, which are all found in SE Asia, is given. The new species appears to be rather local, and may prove to be endemic.

The new name Aspicilia berntii is proposed to accommodate Lecanora mastoidea Lynge in Aspicilia and a lectotype is designated. Additional characters are added to the species description and a comparison is made with similar species. The species is reported as new to Scandinavia with localities in northern Norway. An assessement of the phylogenetic relationships, based on a split network analysis of ITS sequences, places A. berntii close to A. verrucigera in the A. cinerea group.

The importance of organic chemistry in the classification of lichens is well established, but inorganic chemistry has been largely overlooked. Six lichen species were studied over a period of 23 years that were growing in 11 protected areas of the northern Great Lakes ecoregion, which were not greatly influenced by anthropogenic particulates or gaseous air pollutants. The elemental data from these studies were aggregated in order to test the hypothesis that differences among species in tissue element concentrations were large enough to discriminate between taxa faithfully. Concentrations of 16 chemical elements that were found in tissue samples from Cladonia rangiferina, Evernia mesomorpha, Flavopunctelia flaventior, Hypogymnia physodes, Parmelia sulcata, and Punctelia rudecta were analyzed statistically using multivariate discriminant functions and CART analyses, as well as t-tests. Genera and species were clearly separated in element space, and elemental discriminant functions were able to classify 91–100 of the samples correctly into species. At the broadest level, a Zn concentration of 51 ppm in tissues of four of the lichen species effectively discriminated foliose from fruticose species. Similarly, a S concentration of 680 ppm discriminated C. rangiferina and E. mesomorpha, and a Ca concentration of 10 436 ppm discriminated H. physodes from P. sulcata. For the three parmelioid species, a Ca concentration >32 837 ppm discriminated Punctelia rudecta from the other two species, while a Zn concentration of 56 ppm discriminated Parmelia sulcata from F. flaventior. Foliose species also had higher concentrations than did fruticose species of all elements except Na. Elemental signatures for each of the six species were developed using standardized means. Twenty-four mechanisms explaining the differences among species are summarized. Finally, the relationships of four species based on element concentrations, using additive-trees clustering of a Euclidean-distance matrix, produced identical relationships as did analyses based on secondary product chemistry that used additive-trees clustering of a Jaccard similarity matrix. At least for these six species, element composition has taxonomic significance, and may be useful for discriminating other taxa.

In the European Alps, subalpine forests are important for lichen diversity conservation at multiple levels. However, the potential role of coarse woody debris (CWD) has been only marginally considered in the previous literature. The aims of this case study are (i) to provide a first evaluation of the effects of different types of CWD (stumps, logs, and snags) and wood decay on lichen diversity in Pinus-Larix forests in the Italian Alps, and (ii) to increase the knowledge of the lichen biota on CWD in Italy. Seventy-eight species were found, including 12 nationally rare and 10 calicioid species; Placynthiella hyporhoda is new to Italy. Different types of CWD in different decay stages had significantly different lichen communities. Snags seem to be particularly effective for conservation, since they host the highest number of nationally rare species. Our survey suggests that CWD could be an important substratum for several nationally rare species, indicating that further surveys at a regional scale are urgently required in order to evaluate the role of CWD for lichen diversity conservation in the Alps.

Mongolia is one of the least densely populated countries of the world with 2·6 million people occupying an area of 1·5 million km2. A high proportion of the population and economy is concentrated in the capital Ulan Bator, which has 1 million inhabitants. Ulan Bator is characterized by its high elevation (1350 m), low precipitation (300 mm), high annual sunshine duration, and its location in a basin. The city is surrounded by mountain ranges to the north and to the south. Furthermore, it is the coldest capital of the world with an annual mean temperature of −3·7°C (Hilbig et al. 2004). Outside Ulan Bator and a few industrial areas, including a large copper plant near the second-largest city Erdenet, Mongolia’s air is extremely pure (ADB 2006). Therefore, Mongolia’s forests, which cover 10% of the country (Erdenechuluun 2006) harbour a rich epiphytic lichen vegetation (Cogt 1995). Most of these woodlands are conifer stands that form the southernmost range of the continuous Siberian taiga forests (Gunin et al. 1999). Eighty percent of the forest area of Mongolia is covered by Larix sibirica (Savin et al. 1978), while other important tree species in the taiga include Pinus sibirica, P. sylvestris, Picea obovata, Abies sibirica, and Betula platyphylla (Hilbig 1995; Dulamsuren et al. 2005). Dominant epiphytic lichen species in the larch-dominated taiga include Bryoria fuscescens, B. nadvornikiana, Evernia mesomorpha, Flavopunctelia soredica, Hypogymnia bitteri, H. physodes, Lecanora symmicta, Melanohalea septentrionalis, Parmelia sulcata, Usnea sp., and Vulpicida pinastri (Biazrov 1974; Hauck et al. 2007).